Liquid-filled pouches are known as a convenient form of packaging consumer products as well as agrochemical and industrial products. The liquid can be provided in pre-measured quantities intended for use as “unit doses”. The film enveloping the liquid product, which forms the wall of the pouch, may optionally be soluble in water. A particularly suitable water-soluble film for this purpose is made from polyvinyl alcohol, and, in this context, this invention is particularly suited to packaging unit doses of liquid detergent.
One of the key problems encountered by consumers of these products is that they often handle the pouches with wet hands, or they inadvertently splash some water droplets onto the pouch. If this happens the water droplets can locally dissolve the PVA film thus creating a hole from which the liquid detergent can leak out. This invention greatly reduces or eliminates this problem by specific redesign of the liquid detergent composition.
WO-A-02/12432, published on 14 Feb. 2002, discloses liquid unit dose compositions. It is suggested that preferred compositions comprise, in addition to water, a plasticizer for the pouch material (i.e. the water-soluble film). Such plasticizers can have the dual purpose of being a solvent for the ingredients of the composition and a plasticizer for the pouch material.
However the prior art in general neither mentions nor addresses the technical problem of pouch handling with wet hands.